Nope, It's A Bridge

[avatar (Alistair Young)]

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@AMS <adshea@gmail.com> on 2019-05-23 23:24:18 wrote

Don’t forget that the Trek-verse is rather light on the armor so burying your command center in the hull doesn’t help much when any shit seems to either be stopped by shields or punch all the way through the ship.

@Buggy <buggy1997123@yahoo.com> on 2019-05-23 23:50:06 wrote

I think it became readily apparent that the Enterprise’s designers were secretly on some crude hedonics the moment they settled on the layout for the superstructure.

@Scott <scott.kenny@gmail.com> on 2019-05-24 00:29:00 wrote

Hey, you beat me to the submarine reference! And yes, you drive the ship from Control, there are repeaters for sonar/fire control displays there, etc. The bridge is strictly the place where the Officer of the Deck and Lookout (and Force Protection Watch, post-9/11) stand while the boat is on the surface. Last man down, flip off the Russian spy satellite! (And yes, I did break one junior officer into a horrible case of giggles when I physically did that before we submerged)

“(Why did the Enterprise designers perch the bridge right up at the top of the saucer, with about three feet between the back of the fancy digital sensor-feed-showing viewscreen and hard vacuum, right where any Tom, Dick, or Kang could shoot at it conveniently? Were they all Romulan spies?)”

Actually, because the original idea was a glass canopy, making the saucer a giant version of Spaceman Spiff’s flying saucer. That was a sufficiently silly idea that they plated over the canopy before the first model was built, thankfully.

Personally, I am very fond of Dream Pod 9’s Jovian Chronicles setting, their ships are very well-designed for the most part. The only exception is the external habitation centrifuges. The ships are big enough that you could have a 40-50m diameter centrifuge inside all the armor, instead of a 285m diameter external centrifuge.

@Scott <scott.kenny@gmail.com> on 2019-05-24 00:30:38 wrote

Oh, and the quarterdeck, being the place where you formally receive visitors to the ship, is going to be right next to the primary airlock and small craft bay.

@Mike E <treptoplax@gmail.com> on 2019-05-24 11:17:15 wrote

Hm. Makes me think of the ‘Children of a Dead Earth’ video game (near-future space combat). Many ships I’ve seen there have a unified bridge/CIC, but compact computerized expert systems attached to all major systems through the ship. If the redundant links to the bridge fall silent, the individual systems will try to intercommunicate as best they can and do something, generally some combination of flee, await orders signed by a fleet admiral, or try your best to kill everything without a friendly IFF.

@Agammamon <Agammamonx@yahoo.com> on 2019-05-24 12:59:02 wrote

Big (US) Naval ships don’t have a ‘wheelhouse’ - unless you’re going waaaaaaaaaaaaay back, a couple generations or more.

We have a bridge - where the ship is conned from (and where the helmsman steers and the lee-helsmen passes engine order from - or, in the case of gas-turbine ships, directly controls speed). And that is high up in a place with good visibility. The ship is still conned from here during combat though.

There’s a CIC - that is, when possible, inside the hull where its protected. Some classes of ships (FFG-7, for example, where its right under and slightly behind the bridge - the missile and gunnery control room is right underneath (so one good hit will take everything out . . . )) they are not.

There’s ‘after-steering’. This is the room (or rooms) where the steering gear (the hydraulic rams that move the rudder) is at. You can take control and steer from there but its normally unmanned (only during critical situations - General Quarters and close manuevering like entering/exiting port or underway replenishment). But these guys are only steering if the bridge is destroyed or the bridge control panel is otherwise inoperative.

Some ships have a secondary conn - which duplicates the helm/lee helm, conn, and navigation stations of the bridge but even that is placed someplace with an exterior view and you conn and steer from there. On the Forrestal class carrier its placed up front right under the flight deck. Most ships do not have a separate secondary conn though.

It is perfectly legitimate for the ‘bridge’ (the conn and helm station) to be inside CiC. There is, obviously, no particular need to it to be separate since the only reason it is on wet-navy ships is that the Conn needs to be able to visually look at what’s happening outside the ship - there’s lot’s of things that don’t show up on radar.

The maneuvering room will likely in the same situation as a modern gas turbine ship - its there (like the after-steering rooms) as a backup if the remote stations are lost but it won’t normally be in control.

@Alistair Young <us@arkane-systems.net> on 2019-05-24 13:51:52 wrote

Thank you very much for your comment. Much of my knowledge on the subject comes from RN ships of an older generation, so I appreciate the up-to-date perspective.

(As the above post is itself to be quoted on Atomic Rockets, I’ll be sure to pass your comment along as well.)

@Scott <scott.kenny@gmail.com> on 2019-05-26 02:23:43 wrote

Weird, I had another comment before my last one, wonder where it went? Alistair, could you check the spam-filters, please?

Anyway, since it’s not here:

“(Why did the Enterprise designers perch the bridge right up at the top of the saucer, with about three feet between the back of the fancy digital sensor-feed-showing viewscreen and hard vacuum, right where any Tom, Dick, or Kang could shoot at it conveniently? Were they all Romulan spies?)”
It’s my understanding that originally, the Enterprise was going to have a clear canopy over a cockpit like Spaceman Spiff’s little saucer.

But someone decided that it was a little too hard to believe.

@Alistair Young <us@arkane-systems.net> on 2019-05-26 17:13:34 wrote

Found it!

@Scott <scott.kenny@gmail.com> on 2019-05-27 19:36:47 wrote

Thanks!